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5 questions to ask before posting on social media

Given what I do, I pretty much live and breathe social media. Yet if you know me in real life, you'd know that I try as much as possible to keep my private life separate from my online life. (Not that I suffer from personality disorder wtf but I'm generally quite careful about what I post online.)

And I'm sure we all have that one - or two - friends that we'd love to unfollow (or probably already have) cause the stuff he/she posts just...doesn't sit well with us.

Of course I'm by no means an expert but here are some questions I ask myself before I decide what goes online:

1) Am I boasting?

We all have our special and proud moments in our lives that we want to share. Getting engaged, your first house, first car, job promotion... But there IS a difference between wanting to share the moment with your friends and simply showing off. And trust me, people know.

2) Is the message meant solely for ONE person?

Okay. So you've had a fight with your boyfriend and you're pissed like hell but that's between you and him and taking that anger to Whatsapp is definitely better than to Facebook. And please, no cryptic "Why?" / "My life is over." statuses too.

3) Does it compromise safety?

Call me paranoid but I only post a picture on Instagram after I've left the place. (Of course I also know I'm not Paris Hilton from The Bling Ring lah.)

But I think that this is generally a good practice especially for parents with young children. Same goes for his or her full name / age / school or even class. You really don't know what kinda people are there out there.

4) Is it excessive?

Gosh, I love posting my selfies - how else am I supposed to make that 90 minutes' of hair & makeup time worthwhile?! But I don't upload one every other day. In fact, I try to make it a point to post on Facebook no more than 3 times a week (and I think it's a little excessive already!) because really, nobody wants to know what time you woke up/ showered/ took the bus/ reached office/ had for lunch and... You get the drift.

5) Is it kind?

I think we all have a choice of whether we want to hurt somebody with our words and well, the general rule I live by is, if I wouldn't say it to someone face-to-face, I wouldn't post it online either.